A Nightingale Christmas Promise

by Donna Douglas

  Miriam left, and Eleanor stood for a moment in the sluice. She gripped the sink, pressing her forehead against the wall. The tiles felt cool against her aching head.

  The Germans were the enemy, not just at the Front but wherever they were. They needed to be rooted out, locked up, shunned. To do anything else was a betrayal of King and country.

  She went into the kitchen and found the rest of the Stollen, a few pieces lying on a plate where Anna had left them. Eleanor thought of the young man who had died earlier, so young, robbed of his life by a cruel German bullet.

  Then she thought of her brother Harry, out there somewhere, awaiting his fate.

  She snatched up the plate and threw the pieces of Stollen into the bin.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‘What exactly were you thinking, sending a very sick woman home?’

  Kate cringed in the low chair before her father’s desk, her hands knotted together in her lap to stop them from shaking. She had faced her father’s wrath many times in her life, but she had never seen him as angry as he was now.

  ‘I – I’m sorry, Father,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t know—’

  ‘You didn’t know? Good God, and you call yourself a doctor?’

  Kate stared down at the patterned rug beneath her feet. She wanted to defend herself but she had nothing to say. She’d been wrong, and now all she could do was sit there and suffer her father’s justified anger.

  ‘How is she?’

  ‘She’ll live, no thanks to you!’ A vein pulsed in Sir Philip’s broad forehead. ‘She had an emergency operation this afternoon. An operation she might not have needed if you were able to spot a near-ruptured gastric ulcer when you see one!’

  Kate looked up at him. ‘But Mrs Hopkins was a known malingerer,’ she tried to explain. ‘She had already been admitted at least three times in the last—’

  ‘That doesn’t matter!’ her father cut her off. ‘You should still have treated her as you would any other patient presenting with those symptoms. But, of course, you had to be clever, didn’t you? You had to prove you knew best.’

  ‘No, that’s not it at all. I don’t—’

  ‘How do you think I felt when Ormerod told me what had happened?’ her father raged on. ‘To hear that my daughter nearly killed a patient with her negligence? And Ormerod, of all people. He tried to put on a show of concern, but I could see the ghastly little man was gloating …’ Sir Philip Carlyle glared across the desk, his silvery eyes cold with anger. ‘God help us both if the wretched woman does die. Ormerod will have an absolute field day.’

  ‘Perhaps I could talk to him?’

  ‘Are you quite mad? Believe me, that’s the last thing you should do.’ Her father shook his head. ‘Better by far to stay out of his way.’

  ‘How can I when I’m on his firm?’

  Sir Philip gave a hollow laugh. ‘You really don’t understand, do you? Do you think he wants you on his firm after this? It was all I could do to convince him not to send you before the disciplinary committee.’

  Blood rushed to Kate’s head, making her feel faint. ‘The disciplinary committee?’

  ‘Dr Ormerod felt the situation serious enough to warrant it, and I must say I agree with him. The only reason I talked him out of it is because of the shame it would have brought to this family.’ He leant back in his chair, the aged leather creaking under his weight. ‘The Carlyles have a proud tradition at the Nightingale. I have no intention of letting you drag my name and that of your brothers through the mud.’

  Kate hung her head. ‘I’m sorry, Father.’

  There was a long silence. She could feel his gaze on her. ‘You’re not entirely to blame,’ he said eventually. ‘I should never have allowed you to come here in the first place. I should have known the rigours of study would prove too much for you.’ Then, as Kate opened her mouth to protest, he went on, ‘Under the circumstances, I think the best course of action, for everyone’s sake, is for you to return to the Hampstead.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Thankfully you won’t have the black mark of a disciplinary against your name,’ her father continued, not listening to her protest. ‘You should be able to resume your studies there without too much trouble.’

  ‘I’m not going,’ Kate declared.

  Her father’s eyes narrowed. ‘I don’t think you quite understand,’ he said. ‘I’m not asking you to leave. I’m telling you.’

  ‘And I’m telling you, I’m not going.’ Kate sat up straighter. ‘I know I’ve made a mistake, and I’m sorry for it. But I won’t slink away in shame, no matter how many people think I should.’ She met his gaze across the desk. ‘I want another chance,’ she said. ‘I’ll work harder, I’ll do better. I won’t make another mistake or let you down in any way, I swear. Please, Father, let me stay.’

  Sir Philip let out a heavy sigh. ‘Good God, why do you always have to be so difficult? Are you intent on making a laughing stock of this family?’

  ‘No, Father.’

  ‘Well, you could have fooled me!’

  Kate watched him drumming his fingers impatiently on the desk. He couldn’t make her go, not if she refused. But she knew she wouldn’t stay if she didn’t have his permission, if not his blessing. His approval meant too much to her.

  ‘Even if I did say yes, I can’t think of anyone who would take you on,’ he said finally. ‘Ormerod only let you join his firm in the first place as a favour to me. A fact that he did not hesitate to throw back in my face!’ he added bitterly. ‘And once word of this lapse in judgement gets out, I shouldn’t think anyone else would touch you with a barge pole.’

  ‘What if I were to find a place for myself? Would you allow me to stay then?’

  ‘As you’ve already pointed out, I can’t force you to leave.’ Her father smiled mirthlessly. ‘But who in their right mind would ever take you on?’

  ‘Have you heard? Our Miss Carlyle is moving to Pathology.’

  Rufus looked up from his hand of cards to a group of students standing at the bar. Wallace was holding forth as usual, a pint glass in his freckled hand.

  ‘Good,’ Gibson muttered into his drink. ‘About time she moved on.’

  ‘What’s the matter, Gibson? Tired of not being the cleverest in the class anymore?’ Talbot slapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘It has nothing to do with that,’ Gibson defended himself. ‘She doesn’t fit in here, that’s all. And there’s nothing clever about nearly killing a patient,’ he added.

  ‘At least she won’t be able to kill anyone in Pathology!’ Evans laughed.

  ‘She won’t have to be nice to them, either,’ Talbot muttered into his pint.

  ‘That’ll be a relief to her, I daresay,’ Wallace joined in ‘It’d be easier to get a smile from a cadaver than the Ice Maiden!’

  ‘Your turn, old man.’ Charlie Latimer’s voice called for Rufus’ attention. He looked back, blinking.

  ‘I’m sorry – what?’

  ‘Ten of diamonds.’ Latimer nodded at the card he had just laid on the table. ‘Trump that if you can,’ he said, looking pleased with himself.

  Rufus pulled a random card from his hand and laid it down.

  Charlie looked down at it. ‘Five of hearts? Good god, man, you’re not even trying, are you?’ He collected up the cards. ‘Or are you letting me win for once?’

  ‘Got to give you a sporting chance, haven’t I?’ Rufus smiled, his gaze drifting back to the students at the bar.

  Charlie sent him a shrewd look. ‘I take it you hadn’t heard about Miss Carlyle?’

  Rufus shrugged, feigning indifference. ‘I heard what happened.’

  ‘I had the misfortune to be there when Ormerod found out. My God, he went apoplectic with rage. I thought he was going to have a cerebral haemorrhage himself, the way he was going on.’ Charlie laughed.

  ‘But it was an easy enough mistake to make, surely?’

  ‘Not as far as Ormerod was concerned. Although I reckon he was just looking for a
reason to dismiss her. Between you and me, I think Miss Carlyle’s days here are numbered. Which is rather a pity, since I was just getting somewhere with her,’ Charlie sighed.

  Rufus smiled at him. ‘Of course you were!’

  ‘I was, I swear. A couple of times I caught her almost smiling at me.’

  ‘I wouldn’t be calling the banns just yet.’ Rufus laid down a card, which Charlie promptly trumped.

  ‘You may mock, but the Latimer charm will win her over in the end.’ He scooped up the cards and added them to his pile. ‘I daresay you’ll be delighted she’s going, at any rate.’

  ‘Why should I care?’

  ‘One less overprivileged Carlyle for you to loathe?’ Charlie laughed. ‘Oh, come on, dear boy, you never had any time for her.’

  ‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Rufus began, then he caught Charlie’s expression of disbelief. ‘All right, perhaps it’s true,’ he conceded. ‘But only because I believe in fairness. And actually, I don’t think it’s entirely fair that she should be treated so severely over one mistake.’

  ‘What’s this?’ Charlie laughed. ‘You’ve changed your tune, haven’t you? Excuse me, but weren’t you the one who introduced her to Mrs Hopkins in the first place?’

  ‘I didn’t tell her to discharge the woman, did I?’ Rufus stared down at his cards. The truth was, he did feel guilty for what he had done. Perhaps if he hadn’t tried to humiliate Kate for initially being so cautious with Mrs Hopkins’ diagnosis, she wouldn’t have been so rash with the patient’s welfare later.

  Charlie Latimer seemed to guess his thoughts. ‘Look, I wouldn’t chastise yourself too much, old man. Between you and me, I think Ormerod was looking for an excuse to get rid of her.’

  They were interrupted by loud laughter from over by the bar.

  ‘Sounds like they’re happy about Ormerod’s decision, at any rate.’ Charlie commented dryly.

  Rufus cocked his head to listen.

  ‘Of course, you know why old Werner’s taken her on?’ Wallace was saying. ‘No one else would work with him.’

  ‘I’m not surprised,’ Randall spoke up. ‘Pathology’s a grim old place.’

  ‘It’s nothing to do with Pathology,’ Wallace said. ‘It’s Werner that’s the problem, not his department.’

  ‘If it weren’t for the Dean he’d be in an internment camp by now, with the rest of his Hun friends,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Quite appropriate Carlyle’s going to work with him – no one wants either of them,’ Randall said, and they all laughed.

  Rufus threw down his hand of cards. Charlie looked at him. ‘Giving up already? I was just getting into my stride.’

  ‘It’s too noisy to concentrate.’ Rufus shot a dark look towards the young men at the bar. ‘Besides, I need some rest. I’m on call again from midnight.’

  ‘Back on Monaghan? It’s grim, isn’t it?’ Charlie sent him a sympathetic look. ‘I’m on call tonight myself, but fortunately I’m only supervising the Midder boys.’

  Rufus frowned at the glass in Charlie’s hand. ‘Should you be drinking, in that case?’

  Charlie waved away his concern. ‘Sister Maternity assures me that none of the mothers will be giving birth tonight.’ He reached for his pint and held it up in salute. ‘And besides, I’m only wetting the babies’ heads in advance.’

  Rufus shook his head. Charlie Latimer was incorrigible in every way.

  On his way back to the doctors’ lodging house, he thought about Kate Carlyle. It was very strange, the way she had been treated. He would have bet money on her getting away with anything, but she seemed to have been disciplined far more harshly than any of the other students.

  He wondered if Ormerod would have been so severe if it had been a male student who had made the wrong diagnosis. Last winter Talbot had diagnosed huge doses of liquid paraffin for what turned out to be a spastic colon, and got nothing worse than a slap on the wrist for his mistake.

  Then, as if he had somehow conjured her out of his imagination, he suddenly saw Kate Carlyle coming down the steps of the main hospital block, her coat collar turned up, hat pulled down against the rain.

  Rufus froze, at a loss. She looked so unhappy, head bowed, shoulders slumped inside her heavy coat.

  It was none of his business, he told himself. He should ignore her, walk on. He was still telling himself the same thing when he heard his own voice calling out to her.

  She turned round. Rufus saw the look of dismay on her face, and felt a stab of guilt.

  Kate Carlyle stood her ground at the foot of the hospital steps and waited for him to cross the courtyard towards her. She looked as if she wanted to run away, but politeness was forcing her to stay.

  ‘I heard about what happened … about Mrs Hopkins,’ he said.

  ‘Have you seen her? How is she?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Recovering well, I understand. Well enough to be complaining that she thinks she has the beginnings of appendicitis!’ Rufus smiled, but Kate’s woebegone expression did not alter.

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ she said shortly and started to walk away, but Rufus called after her.

  ‘Anyone can make a mistake, you know.’

  Kate stopped and looked back over her shoulder at him. It was difficult to work out what was going on behind those cool grey eyes of hers.

  ‘Any of the students could have done the same as you,’ Rufus went on, filling the charged silence.

  Kate smiled sadly at him. ‘Yes, but there’s a difference, isn’t there?’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘They can afford to make mistakes. I can’t.’

  She walked away, leaving him standing in the rain.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ‘And I used to think the hat factory was hard work!’

  Sadie straightened up, massaging the small of her back. It was barely eight o’clock in the morning, but her spine was already aching from making beds. Now she and Grace Duffield had the job of getting the soiled linen ready for the laundry. A wintry draught blew in through the grille above their heads in the sluice room.

  ‘I don’t know why we even bother having a laundry, since we have to do all the hard work ourselves!’ Grace grumbled as she bent low, scrubbing away at a nasty brown stain.

  ‘You know what Sister Tutor says. “Stains must not be allowed to dry on the linen, because it makes them harder to remove.”’ Sadie recited the words they had heard repeated so often during Preliminary Training.

  Grace groaned. ‘Don’t! You sound just like Copeland.’ She flexed her fingers. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up with chilblains, you know.’

  Just then Staff Nurse Gifford appeared in the doorway. ‘I need help doing last offices for a patient,’ she announced. ‘Duffield, you can come with me.’

  Grace grimaced. ‘Just my luck,’ she murmured under her breath.

  Sadie grinned back at her. ‘Scrubbing stains off sheets doesn’t seem too bad now, does it?’

  But Sadie stopped smiling when Grace had left and she was by herself. She scrubbed until her arms ached and her fingers were sore, all the time aware of the minutes ticking by. Half-past eight inched towards nine, when the porters came to take the linen down to the laundry. If it wasn’t ready, there would be a black mark by Sadie’s name in the ward book.

  She was still wrestling the last wet, flapping sheet from the stone sink to the laundry basket when she heard the door open behind her.

  Sadie glanced at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes to nine. Sometimes the porters liked to turn up early just to catch them out.

  ‘Nearly finished,’ she said, without looking round. ‘Give me a hand with this, will you?’

  ‘Look here, Sedgewick. You may be senior to me, but there’s no need to think you can go around dishing out orders!’

  Sadie swung round. There, in the doorway, stood Dulcie Moore, looking smart in the blue-striped uniform of a probationer, her cheeky face framed by the severe lines of her cap.

  ‘Moore!
’ Sadie let the wet sheet drop from her hands and rushed to hug her friend. ‘Where did you spring from?’

  ‘This is my first morning on the ward.’ Dulcie looked pleased with herself. ‘I told you I’d be back, didn’t I?’

  ‘You managed to get through the examination this time, then?’

  ‘Just about.’ Dulcie rolled her eyes. ‘It was touch and go, especially when I sprayed the examiner with a soap and water enema!’

  ‘You didn’t?’

  ‘I did. I nearly died. I couldn’t even look at her in case I burst out laughing.’ Dulcie grinned. ‘Lucky she saw the funny side, too! But, to be honest, I reckon they would have passed me anyway, they’re so desperate for nurses.’

  ‘Well, I’m certainly glad to see you.’

  ‘Me too. I was afraid I might end up on a ward with Eleanor Copeland!’ Dulcie smiled. ‘Is she still a know all?’

  ‘Worse, if anything!’ Sadie said. She looked down at the wet sheet pooling at her feet. ‘Here, help me get this into the laundry basket, would you? Sister will have a fit if it ain’t ready by the time the porters come.’

  They finished with the linen, and then went back to the ward. Sister had instructed Sadie to look after Dulcie and show her the ropes, so they were able to keep up a conversation in hushed voices as they went about their work.

  ‘I need to hear all the gossip,’ Dulcie whispered as they made the patients’ mid-morning tea in the kitchen. ‘How’s Duffield? Still as clumsy as ever?’

  ‘I’m afraid so. She dropped a whole jar of leeches the other day. And she managed to step on a few and squash them while she was picking them up.’

  Dulcie shook her head. ‘I’m amazed that girl has kept all her limbs. And what about Beck and Copeland? I expect they’re still as thick as thieves?’

  ‘Hardly!’ Sadie arranged the cups on the tray. ‘Oh, I forgot. You left before they fell out, didn’t you?’

  ‘They fell out?’

  ‘Well, Copeland fell out with poor Beck.’ Sadie explained how Eleanor had taken against Anna.

  Dulcie looked outraged. ‘I hope you told her she was being daft?’ she said.